you can call me rambo

Sorry its taken me a while to write another post, i have been in really remote villages and hilltribes for the last 3 weeks so its been a bit of a struggle to get time to sit down on a computer for more than about 15 minutes. but i have had the most AMAZING 3 weeks. its been unreal. i spent 2 weeks in the elephant village which i completely fell in love with, it was so nice to spend so much time them and also doing a lot of labour to help conserve the camp itself. we did a lot of planting and ploughing in the fields and then msot days we got to go down to the mudbath or the river and get in and wash the elephants and swim with them. by the end of the 2 weeks i felt completely at home and wouldnt even blink if an elephant herd casually strolled past my window. we lived in really simple conditions which i also loved. and it was good to spend time with the mahouts although there was quite a language barrier, but we gave them all engilsh lessons which was a good laugh. ive also learnt a little bit of thai although not much, it is a very confusing language! so after we waved quite a tearful goodbye to our elephants and mahouts and homestay families, we headed up to chiang mai for 3 days of trekking and bamboo rafting in the jungle. this was also absolutely incredible. really hard work but very satisfying at the end. on the first day we did a 3 hour trek up a mountain and back down the other side into a hilltribe village. now, as you probably guessed i am not a natural trekker, and one of the trekking guides, nooka (we called him nougat) decided within the first 5 minutes of trekking that i shouldnt be trusted ot be left alone so he accompanied me for monst of it, cacthing me when i almost slipped down the side of the mountain, carrying my bag for me up the realy steep bits, and tying various leaves and shrubbery around my head because he thought it was hilarious. that prompted the whole group to re-name me rambo. we stayed in bamboo huts overnight and had some amazing real thai food. then the next morning we were woekn at the crack of dawn by the cockerel and did another 5 hours of trekking through the jungle to an elephant camp situated right in the middle of the jungle. it was a lovely camp anda really nice habitat for the elephants with a stream running thorugh the middle and lotfs of grass and bamboo for the to eat. we then rode the elephants for another hour through the jungle and i am definitley glad we had already had experience riding elephants because otherwise i deifnitley would have fallen off. i was sat on the neck and we were going up and down really steep hills but thankfully i was quite comfortable with riding them although i did have to hold on quite tight in some parts. they took us to our next village which was a little bit bigger, there we had a tour round the village school and we fed the fish in the river and then had another amazing dinner, followed by a traditional karen tribe massage to soothe our sore legs and then another night in a bamboo hut. i dont know why but i actually really love living the simple life in tiny little remote villages like that andbeing completely cut off. we washed in the river and went to the toilet in a hole in the ground, we slept on mats on a wooden floor with a blanket and had no electricity and there were loads of different animals just casually wandering around the village. it was great! anyway on the 3rd day we did something like 9km of bamboo raftnig which was bloody tiring! i was not a natural bamboo rafter but i gave it a go, and then there was one part where we had to get in the river and swim down because the raft could fit through the rocks and i got dragged off by the current which was quite funny. we finally made it to the end of the trek by lunchtime and i ate laods of fresh pineapple which was soooo nice. so in general a really grat experience! and my hiking boots did my proud thankyou mama hinson! i am hoping to do something similar to that when i get back from the islands. so now i am back in bangkok for a few days and on monday night i head down to koh phangan for the full moon party for a night of good old civilised fun (cough cough) and then travelling over to krabi and koh phi phi on the other side of the peninsula. will update again soon. miss you all and thinking of you. loads of love xx